«...This new-born Penza "Chrysostom": the government and the Orthodox clergy in the era of the "thaw". Based on the materials of the Penza Region State Archive

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-3-716-731

For citation

Sukhova, Olga A. (2025). "...This new-born Penza "Chrysostom": the government and the Orthodox clergy in the era of the "thaw". Based on the materials of the Penza Region State Archive, Herald of an Archivist, no. 3, pp. 716-731, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-3-716-731

Sukhova, Olga A., Penza State University, Penza, Russia

«...This new-born Penza "Chrysostom": the government and the Orthodox clergy in the era of the "thaw". Based on the materials of the Penza Region State Archive

Abstract

The need to study the social role of the Russian Orthodox Church and the clergy in the era of the late USSR reflects a social demand for a scientific understanding of the phenomenon of religious revival, which was formed despite the imposition of an atheistic worldview. An effective methodological tool for solving this problem is the anthropological approach, which focuses the researcher on the study of socio-psychological aspects, the analysis of practices of spiritual and moral service. The reasonableness of the conclusions complements the application of the historical and biographical method both in relation to the "main" and "collective" characters of the narrative, as well as a new local history based on such constructs as social role, social interaction within a certain living space. The corpus of sources is formed by materials of personal origin, office documentation of the authorized representatives of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, presented in the funds of the State Archive of the Penza region. In the course of the source analysis, it was possible to identify a wide range of information potential of documents. Despite the formal aim of searching for evidence of the downward development of the Church and the victory of secularized consciousness, the reports of the commissioners of the "thaw" period record a poorly concealed statement of the triumph of Orthodox identity. At the same time, the markers of strengthening "church influence" are: the growth of incomes of religious communities, the scale of fulfillment of requirements (primarily baptisms), attendance at churches, the development of pilgrimages to "holy places", the scaling up of the clergy's social service practices. The preservation and reproduction of Orthodox identity is explained by the need for adaptation, assimilation by the population of the value orientations of the new industrial society by turning to the spiritual origins of Orthodox civilization and experiencing previous experiences. On the other hand, there was an evolution of confessional politics, which resulted in the liberalization of political realities. Despite the tightening of the tax policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church and the bureaucratization of the procedure for performing religious rites, administrative zeal was blocked by the appearance of the slightest threat of mass riots. The phenomenon of conscious choice of the path of spiritual and moral service is considered by the example of the life path of the famous Penza teacher, historian, museum worker and clergyman Mikhail Anatolyevich Lebedev (1889-1879).

Keywords

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Soviet society in the 1950s – 1960s, religious identity, Orthodox clergy, practices of spiritual and moral ministry, M. A. Lebedev, Penza region.

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About authors

Sukhova Olga A., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Penza State University, V. G. Belinsky Pedagogical Institute, Faculty of History and Philology, dean, Penza, Russia, +7-927-289-20-41, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000-0003-0658-736X

Grant information

The research was carried out in accordance with the state assignment of Penza State University: "Practices of spiritual and Moral service in Russian History in the Second Half of the 19th - early 21st centuries: on the example of the activities of M. M. Kiselyova and the Penza Branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society" within the framework of the Program of fundamental scientific research in the direction "Russia and the Middle East: historical, political and cultural contacts and interrelationships of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the NGO IPPO in 2025.

The article was received in the editorial office on 27.03.2025, recommended for publication on 20.06.2024.